The Story of an Hour

               The irony in The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, lies within Mrs. Mallard's way of reacting to the bitter news of her husband's death. It is within reason to believe that a person who has just found out the news of a loved ones death would respond with great grief. To my disbelieve, Mrs. Mallard did not respond in this way. In the beginning, she seemed to show slight signs of distress and grief, but as the minutes passed she began to feel happiness from his death. She mentioned that she was now free and that she need not worry about him. She was so happy that it caused her to have a heart attack. The irony in this situation was that her sister and and her husband's friend wanted to avoid telling her the tragedy of the death of her husband due to heart trouble that she experienced. Their want of protection came to affect when they realized that she would have a heart attack upon impact of knowing what had arisen. Ironically, Mrs. Mallard indeed died of a heart attack but from happiness of being free rather than from grief and sadness. "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills (Chopin, 327)."